Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea A North Sea Freighter That Carried Food And Contraband Around The Caribbean Has A Second Life.

June 7, 1992|By STEPHEN d`OLIVEIRA, Staff Writer

Sweat is the only essential ingredient in transforming an old ship into an artificial reef.

Scuba diver Bob Booth was contributing his share as he wiped away drops of perspiration from his face one Saturday afternoon while working on the Union Express, a 170-foot freighter being cleaned out for its final voyage to the bottom of the sea as Broward County`s newest artificial reef.

Booth sat on a concrete dock at Port Everglades to rest his legs after toiling amid the ship`s rust and dust.

``I expect to get dirty when I come down here, but it`s kind of fun,`` Booth said. ``You get enjoyment out of this because you get to dive it.``

Riding high in the water like a cork, the Union Express was maneuvered into its berth at the port by two small tugboats at 2:20 p.m. on Friday, April 10.

An inspection revealed rusting metal stairs and black paint so brittle it crumbled at the touch. The windows on the pilot house were missing, explaining the scattered bits of broken glass on the deck.

Before it is sunk, a ship must be stripped of all wood, petroleum products, loose debris and anything else that floats. All doors and hatches are removed so divers won`t get trapped.

Volunteers from the Hollywood-based South Florida Divers Club pitched in to strip the ship.

Booth, a club member and Sunrise resident, was one of two dozen divers who brought crowbars and sledgehammers to hack away at the dark mahogany in the crew`s quarters.

``It`s probably one of the cleaner wrecks,`` said Ken Banks, artificial reef coordinator with Broward County`s Office of Natural Resource Protection and one of several divers who took turns chucking wooden panels onto the dock.

Banks was part of the bucket brigade, a haphazard line of divers who filled white buckets with scraps of wood and hauled them up to the deck, where they were lowered over the side with a rope and tossed into a trash bin.

The volunteers are required to sign liability waivers. Minor cuts and scrapes are almost inevitable, and despite precautions, the operator of the acetylene torch usually ends up with several dime-size burns on his forearms.

The torch is used to cut dozens of holes in the hull, both for diver access and to facilitate water flow. Without currents streaming through the ship, there won`t be enough microscopic food for the tiny marine organisms that are the base of the ocean food chain.

``You`ve got to keep the water fresh for them,`` Banks said.

Stripping a ship is no easy task, but it isn`t all work and no play. Once the divers board the ship, it isn`t long before beer and soda cans are strewn about the deck.

Joe Smariga, president of the South Florida Divers Club, said divers are sometimes surprised by what`s left behind.

On the Union Express, a 2-by-3-foot hole, cut to hide contraband, was found beneath a bunk bed.

It was mostly empty, though: ``Just trash,`` Smariga said.

The vessel, built in Europe in 1959, worked the rugged North Sea before it started ferrying collards, beans, rice and other cargo between Haiti, South America and the United States.

Fading gray stickers affixed to the ship provided a clue about its last commercial venture:

``WARNING: This property is under detention and/or seizure. United States Customs Service.``

``It started hauling more profitable cargo, like cocaine, and got nailed,`` Banks said.

Banks, a Boca Raton resident, said the Union Express was bought in Miami by the county and the Pompano Beach Fishing Rodeo for $35,000. It was renamed after Mariner Outboards, one of the rodeo`s major sponsors.

On April 25, 15 days after the ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale, it was towed to a spot 1 1/2 miles off Pompano Beach, where the Broward Sheriff`s Office Bomb & Arson Sqaud set off charges to blast holes in the hull and send the 370-ton freighter down in 113 feet of water.

The Union Express was sunk primarily for anglers, but experienced divers can reach it.

As divers cautiously descend on the wreck, the dark, shadowy outline of the vessel comes into focus, resting silently on the sandy ocean floor, never again to sail the surface of the seas.

A handful of divers explore the Union Express three-dimensionally, swimming along a ceiling as easily as a floor. Stairs and ladders no longer serve any purpose.

It takes years for an artificial reef to mature, but the process begins almost immediately. A thin layer of algae attaches itself to the wreck within days, followed soon by microorganisms and settling larvae. In the coming months invertebrates and crustaceans will take up residence, followed by soft sponges and hard corals. Fish are seen on the wreck within hours, but will move on and off the vessel until a reliable food source is established.

``It`s starting to show a layer of green algae,`` Banks said. ``I`ve seen some bait fish and there`s some predators there. It should be good fishing.``